The importance of cleanliness has long been recognized, particularly in the fields of healthcare, food preparation, and laboratory research. The practice of manual hand scrubbing by surgeons and other operating room personnel defines the epitome of efforts to maintain a sterile environment. Although manual hand washing can be effective, medical experts have concluded that automated hand-washing devices increase hand-washing compliance and, therefore, reduce the risk of infection. Automated hand-washing devices are designed to wash the hands of the user and provide the proper amount of antimicrobial cleanser in a set time. Additionally, these devices diminish the deterrent effects resulting from the friction and irritation associated with frequent manual hand washing.
In addition to automated hand-washing devices, hands-free dispensers, which dispense cleaning material, such as soap, without physically contacting the dispenser, have also been put into use in an effort to decrease microbial contamination between successive users that would normally result in manually-actuated dispensers.
While such automated and hands-free hand-washing devices provide significant benefits over that of manual hand washing, several drawbacks still exist. For example, one difficulty is verifying whether employees and/or staff are actually using the automated hand-washing device in compliance with sanitation standards.
To overcome this drawback, some dispensers utilize hygiene-monitoring systems, which use a variety of devices, such as biometric scanners, RFID tags, and bar codes, to uniquely associate a user with his or her use of the dispenser. For example, hygiene dispensers may utilize a fingerprint reader that identifies each user by his or her unique fingerprint to ascertain user compliance with sanitation standards. However, such monitoring devices require that the user's identity be disclosed prior to the dispensement of the cleansing material, and subsequent usage monitoring, which sacrifices the anonymity of the user. This sacrificed anonymity is not desirable, as it may result in privacy concerns for the users, and the institutions that utilize such dispensers, which are unwanted. Thus, it is desirable to be able to utilize biometric tracking without associating it with a specific individual, while still identifying various trends in the usage habits of the users of the dispenser.
Furthermore, such biometric systems require the user to physically contact the dispenser, which results in the transmission of bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms between successive individuals. Accordingly, it would be advantageous to have a system that verifies and/or tracks the hand washing of users without the need to physically contact the dispenser to limit the development and spread of harmful bacteria, viruses, and other microorganisms.
Therefore, there is a need for a dispenser that utilizes vein-pattern recognition to identify a user of the dispenser before dispensing of material, such as soap, is performed. In addition, there is a need for a touch-free dispenser that utilizes vein-pattern recognition to associate usage data with a dispensing event with each user of the dispenser. Still yet, there is a need for a touch-free dispenser that utilizes vein-pattern recognition to initiate one or more functions of the dispenser without physically contacting the dispenser. Furthermore, there is a need for a touch-free dispenser that does not associate a user's vein pattern with his or her identity.